Contents

kdelibs splitting epic

Important Forewords

If you are working on splitting a framework, make sure to consult our list of common issues. It will give you an overview of the solutions you're supposed to use to deal with some of the dependencies.

Also, when splitting out a framework, it is part of being done to comply with the KDE Frameworks Policies, it will also need to follow this Epic Policies. Any framework in the staging area cannot move to its final place without following those policies.

And last but not least, if you create a new framework, please consider being its maintainer as well. We need people to ensure the stewardship of all the frameworks.

Existing frameworks

Definition of done:

No dependency on kde4support, kdecore, kdeui, kio, kparts...

All unused dependencies are removed

Tier1 modules depend only on Qt modules

Library name is in CamelCase

Modularized CMakeLists.txt [using extra-cmake-modules (ECM)]

Installs a Config.cmake file for itself

Does not install any Find*.cmake modules itself

Calls feature_summary at the end of the toplevel CMakeLists.txt (see kcoreaddons for an example)

All Find*.cmake modules needed by the framework and used also by other frameworks have been upstreamed to extra-cmake-modules (via the kde-buildsystem mailing list) or directly to cmake (via the cmake list). To make sure of this, do not append to CMAKE_MODULE_PATH, but set it.

Backlog

This list is non-final, hence why it is not integrated in the table above, when the scope of a lib gets defined and worked on, it is removed from this list and go in the table above.

Yet to be produced frameworks (foreseen tier and type, not set in stone):

...

And probably more...

Finalization tasks

To be executed to complete the epic when all the frameworks are "done":

Make sure it builds and runs against Qt 5.2 final

Split into its own git module; pre-existing history will remain in the kdelibs repository and be accessible with git graft

Produce a script or cmake file to recreate a kdeexamples tarball out of a set of examples directory in the frameworks

Policies

Strive for Source Compatibility

Avoid removing API from the frameworks branch, even if it is replaced or deprecated. Prefer to implement the old API in terms of the new API.

In some cases this is very easy. For example, many APIs in KGlobal will be replaced as part of the frameworks effort.

KGlobal::charsets() -> KCharsets::charsets()

KGlobal::dirs() -> KStandardDirs::global() (or something?)

KGlobal::ref() / KGlobal::deref() -> QEventLoopLocker

etc.

Removing this API from KGlobal is not necessary in most cases, and it introduces a porting burden which is best avoided.

There is unlikely to be a 1:1 mapping of old API to new API in every case, so how to implement the old API may not always be obvious. However, attempting to ensure that the older API remains useful should be at the front of our efforts and standards in the frameworks branch.

Binary compatibility policy relaxed

During the execution of this epic, the binary compatibility contraints from the global policy list is lifted.